Leftwing Blogosphere Disappointed in Obama Saddleback Forum Performance

P.J. Gladnick
August 17th, 2008 2:24 PM
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So just how bad was Barack Obama's performance at the Saddleback Church faith-based forum last night? To read the cautious mainstream media reports, such as CNN, on the event you would think that Obama was merely "thoughtful" as reported by Michael M. Bates here on NewsBusters today. However, in a few media outlets a much blunter appraisal of Obama's performance can be found such as in the U.K. Telegraph. The very title of their article, "Barack Obama fails to shine alongside John McCain," gives a good idea of writer Alex Spillius' opinion of the event (emphasis mine):

As a regular church-goer comfortable talking about his faith, Mr Obama is ostensibly better placed than most recent Democratic candidates to win over evangelicals.

But his support of abortion, a non-negotiable issue for many conservative Christians, remains a considerable obstacle, and he drew disapproving noises from the 2,800 audience at Saddleback in Lake Forest, California when he gave an evasive response to the question of when human rights begin for a baby.

"Whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade," said Mr Obama.

Spillius contrasted what he called an "evasive answer" with John McCain's response:

Mr McCain, who has always been against abortion, in contrast gave a swift response: "At the moment of conception", drawing a loud round of applause.

Perhaps the best measure of Obama's performance can be seen among a group that normally includes his strongest supporters, the leftwing blogosphere. Despite some brave attempts by some in that arena to put a happy face on Obama's appearance at Pastor Rick Warren's forum, even they were forced to express disappointment as you can see in both the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos. The very title of the DU thread, "I won't win cool points for this, but McCain is doing excellent so far, better than Obama," expresses something less than a vote of confidence for Obama. Here are a few examples of just how disappointed the DUers were in Obama last night:

...I honestly can't remember hardly any of Senator Obama's answers to the questions that were asked, while McCain has had at least SOME memorable answers.

I think it was a mistake for Senator Obama to do this forum.

I've been shocked at how well McCain has done compared to what I was expecting. That very well could be it.

I don't know why Obama went there - he comes across as a poor second to our "McZero the hero".

Meanwhile, the Kossacks tried not too convincingly to believe that McCain didn't really win as you can see from this thread title, "Why McCain's 'win' wasn't really a win at the FBF." The author of the thread might be trying to convince the other Kossacks that McCain didn't win but many others weren't buying it as you can see:

McCain beat our a** tonight.

We have been here before. You don't bring Karate to a gun fight. You bring an Uzzi. McCain brought an Uzzi. Obama brought a pocket knife and got ambushed. It's time to stop this crap.

His answer "above my pay grade" will be in an ad tomorrow. He appeared to give non answers to me. And he must have said uh and um a hundred times!

OBAMA GOT CREAMED...NO OTHER WAY TO LOOK at it.

Try as the MSM can to avoid mentioning just how poorly Obama performed last night in comparison with McCain, many on the left, as you can see, are very upfront in expressing their disappointment. You can see an even larger sampling of leftwing depression over Obama's performance at the DUmmie FUnnies.